Regions

Sustainable Space Cooling

Growth in demand for cooling is estimated to rise significantly in the next few decades, driven by increasing incomes in warm climates that currently have low air conditioner penetration (Davis and Gertler, 2015). Increased saturation of air conditioners has significant impacts in terms of total electricity generation and also for load management. Many parts of the world have, or are gaining, a pronounced seasonal peak in electricity demand corresponding to the hottest months of the year, so increased air conditioning could necessitate large capacity investments.

Increased saturation of air conditioners also has a large and emissions impact both due to carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption and emissions of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant R410A (GWP=1924, IPCC AR5).

The International Energy Studies Group addresses the electricity, peak load, and emissions challenges posed by growing cooling demand by research on the following research topics: